PBS has a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which says that hundreds of thousands of those who fled Afghanistan over the last 30 years are returning home. The UNHCR is looking for western governments to give more money to Afghanistan to soften the blow on the economy there as this many people return.
Photo in the PBS story: Afghans wait to cross into their home country at the border post in Torkham, Pakistan, on March 7. Photo by Fayaz Aziz/Reuters (Where are the women and children?)
When I checked Wrapsnetto see how many we were bringing to America, I was surprised to see our ‘refugee’ intake from Afghanistan increasing, not decreasing.
First see what the PBS Newshour is reporting, here:
For years, Afghans have fled the violence in their country, seeking asylum in Europe or elsewhere in the Middle East. But over the past year, about 600,000 Afghans have crossed the border back into Afghanistan, coming from Pakistan, Iran and Europe when they are denied asylum.
Human Rights Watch says Pakistan is using a UN incentive program that gives refugee families a cash grant of $400 to voluntarily return home as a way to pressure Afghans to go back to Afghanistan.
[….]
United Nations High Commission for Refugees spokeswoman Ariane Rummery said at a press briefing last month the organization is concerned that the pace of those returning is outstripping the country’s ability to accept them. She urged donor countries to follow through on their pledges to support the Afghan government.
So how many are we taking and where are they going?
(I want to know why we are taking any!)
Checking Wrapsnet going back to FY03 (because prior to that we can’t get good data) up until today, this is what I learned.
From FY03-FY13 we admitted on average 674 Afghans (small compared to the massive numbers of Iraqis, Somalis and now Syrians we have brought). In FY09, our lowest year, we admitted 349 from Afghanistan.
In FY14 the number started to pick up and we admitted 753 Afghans.
FY15 was 910. FY16 jumped to 2,737 and in the first five plus months this fiscal year we admitted 1,008. The total number was 12,824 and 97% were Muslims of various stripes.6,537 were Sunnis and 4,531 were Shiites (once again admitting both sides of the religious divide!).
Here is where they were placed since FY03:
Florida is 319. Alaska got zero as did Hawaii, something we reported here as Hawaii (ha! ha!) sued the Trump Administration EO. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/03/10/hawaii-needs-refugees-sues-feds-over-refugee-pause-travel-restrictions-from-certain-muslim-countries/
For more on refugees from Afghanistan, click here.
You can’t make this up.
Surely you have already seen the news that the state of Hawaii is claiming that the Trump Administration’s latest Executive Order limiting travel to the US from certain countries and pausing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program will hurt Hawaii! Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin spoke at Muslim Association of Hawaii, alleges they aren’t getting enough Muslim refugees (he didn’t really say that exactly), but they clearly need some! http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/03/hawaii-becomes-first-state-to-challenge-trumps-new-travel-ban/ I’m going to propose (when the refugee pause and the travel restrictions are lifted) that the state of Hawaii be placed at the top of the refugee-receiving list and get its FAIR SHARE of refugees especially from Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. to make up for lost time in reaping the rewards of diversity!
Hawaii resettled a grand total of 123 refugees in 14 years, 5 months and ten days (up to today).
I’ll show you below with more numbers how completely ignorant and ill-informed Hawaii’s AG sounds.
Here is Seattlepi:
Hawaii has become the first state to mount a federal court challenge to President Trump’s revised executive order blocking travel from six predominantly Muslim countries and barring Syrian refugees for 120 days.
Attorneys for the Aloha State on Wednesday asked a U.S. District Court judge in Honolulu to block the new Trump order.
“This new executive order is nothing more than Muslim Ban 2.0; under the pretense of national security, it still targets immigrants and refugees,” Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement.
[….]
In its court filing, Hawaii argues that the rights of its citizens, and its tourism economy, will be damaged by the revised Trump order, which takes effect March 16.
The new executive order will damage Hawaii’s “economy, educational institutions and tourism industry,” the state argues in its brief.
Rolling on floor laughing my head off! Hawaii “welcoming persons from all nations around the world into the fabric of its society.”
“It is damaging Hawaii’s institutions, harming its economy and eroding Hawaii’s sovereign interest in maintaining the separation between church and state as well as in welcoming persons from all nations around the world into the fabric of its society.”
Ismail Elshikh, Muslim Association of Hawaii is a co-plaintiff in suit against Trump Administration. http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/03/hawaii-becomes-first-state-to-challenge-trumps-new-travel-ban/
Now, here is the real power behind the suit—Muslim Association of Hawaii!
The state’s suit has a co-plaintiff, Ismail Elshikh, the imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii, saying the Trump order “inflicts a grave injury on Muslims in Hawaii, including Dr. Elshikh, his family and members of his mosque.”
Let’s look at Hawaii’s refugee program!
Checking Wrapsnetthis morning, here is a summary of the refugees admitted to Hawaii in the last 14 years, 5 months and 10 days:
Of the total 123 refugees they “welcomed” to Hawaii, the largest number (66) were Vietnamese who came in the early years (FY03,04,05). Another 40 were Burmese (most Burmese are Christians). Only 5 from any Middle East country came. In 2004, 1 Iranian was resettled there and in 2013 they got a grand total of 4 Iraqis. None of the thousands of Syrians admitted to the US in the last 2 years were seeded in Hawaii!
A smattering of Russians and Ukrainians were placed there over the years.
There were no refugees sent to Hawaii at all in FY11 and last year! Zero Africans were planted in Hawaii in all those years. That is interesting since when I read some books on Obama’s father arriving in Hawaii in about 1960, see especially this book, I learned that Hawaiians were not partial to Africans and that Barack Sr. attracted much attention because of his race and demeanor. Hmmmm?
Why wasn’t the state of Hawaii begging for refugees over the last 14 years, 5 months and 10 days?
Seems it might be just the right time to send Hawaii its fair share of Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Congolese!
BTW, how is the welfare system in Hawaii, does anyone know?
Here is an idea! There are no travel restrictions between Minnesota and Hawaii. Maybe load up a few planes with excess refugees there and send them to Hawaii (I hear that the climate is much better!).
This post is archived in our ‘laugh of the day’ category, here.
Actually it is over a half billion the US Conference of Catholic Bishops received from US taxpayers since 2008!
(By the way, I just heard Raymond Arroyoon Fox and Friends say that the USCCB gets millions of tax dollars annually from the federal treasury, but I couldn’t find the clip. Yeh! Finally that information is getting in to the mainstream media!) ***Update***Reader Robin has found the clip. Be sure to watch (click here) at about 50 seconds in when Brian Kilmeade asks why Lutherans and Catholics oppose the Trump refugee slowdown. Clearly Arroyo has done some homework!
Here is the latest from Catholic News Agency (CNA):
Washington D.C., Mar 6, 2017 / 03:50 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world, President Donald Trump’s new executive order halting refugee admissions is wrong, Catholic bishop and aid groups maintain.
Bishop Vasquez chairs the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration. Last time we looked we reported that 97% of the Bishop’s Migration funds money comes from you—the taxpayers! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/01/11/and-we-almost-missed-it-us-conference-of-catholic-bishops-celebrates-its-national-migration-week/
“We remain deeply troubled by the human consequences of the revised executive order on refugee admissions and the travel ban. While we note the Administration’s efforts to modify the Executive Order in light of various legal concerns, the revised Order still leaves many innocent lives at risk,” Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin stated March 6. Bishop Vasquez chairs the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration.
“The U.S. Catholic Bishops have long recognized the importance of ensuring public safety and would welcome reasonable and necessary steps to accomplish that goal,” he said.
“However, based on the knowledge that refugees are already subjected to the most vigorous vetting process of anyone who enters the United States, there is no merit to pausing the refugee resettlement program while considering further improvement to that vetting process.”
Here comes the big lie that Trump is reducing the number of refugees dramatically! Contractors, like the US Bishops, did just fine on less than 50,000 refugees during 4 of Bush’s years.
But, for only one year did Obama propose the astronomical number of 110,000 (for most of the year he would not be in office!) and that becomes the standard that the ignorant, gullible media goes with! For the many new readers we get every day, the resettlement contractors, including the USCCB, gets paid by the head to place refugees in your towns. More refugees=more money!
“Resettling only 50,000 refugees a year, down from 110,000, does not reflect the need, our compassion, and our capacity as a nation,” Bishop Vasquez stated.“We have the ability to continue to assist the most vulnerable among us without sacrificing our values as Americans or the safety and security of our nation.”
He goes on to oppose any religious test (like the prioritization of Christians in the first EO) for admission to the US. Now, here comes a major truth! And, this is why Christians are not prioritized from Muslim countries!
Refugees must first register with the UNHCR to be eligible for resettlement.
Trump should immediately sever our ties with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, save us millions of dollars, and put in place a program where we, the US, chooses our refugees without the UNHCR middle men!
CNA continues……
“The Obama administration policy was to prioritize these groups, but despite this they remain severely underrepresented in U.S. refugee admissions, so it’s clear that a fair outcome is even more important than a stated priority,” he said. [Andrew Walther, vice president of communications and strategic planning at the Knights of Columbus.]
Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of Antioch has warned that Christians hoping to be resettled in the U.S. or Canada have never even had the chance.
“I personally heard on several occasions from many of our Christian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, that their applications for refugee visas, either to the USA or Canada, are without any response, if not refused by the consulates of the USA and Canada,” he stated.
Never mentioned at CNA News is the financial reason the USCCB does not want to slow the flow for even a short period of time—$$$$$!
Here (below) is just one page of the income the USCCB is getting from you (from 2008-2016). This does not include the millions and millions of tax payer dollars received separately by individual Catholic Charities around the country.
My screenshot from USASpending.govcaptures only 7 of 227 transactions. For those of you interested in the USAID funding be sure to scroll through the pages and see how much of that money the USCCB gets!
By the way, since the Bishops are exempt from filing Form 990’s we can’t get at their salaries.
“The Internal Revenue Service gives serious consideration to complaints made alleging the abuse of the tax exempt status granted to certain organizations.”
(IRS website)
Looking for a little project to do from the comfort of home…..
For those of you getting very annoyed by the ‘non-profit’ federal resettlement contractors (which get gobs of federal funding) increasingly involved in political organizing, a reader (‘badboylookout’) did a little research and sent us a link from the IRS on how you can complain about a possible misuse of their 501(c)3 status. The nine VOLAGs *** and their subcontractors are especially active right now as we learned here (just one example).
It looks like you may never know if they are investigated, but it might make someone, somewhere take a look. Go here for the page itself with hotlinks, and below is a shot of what you should know.
You might also wish to complain to Inspectors General at the US State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Dept. of Homeland Security (all three have involvement with the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program).
This post is filed in our ‘comments worth noting’ category, here. And, in our ‘where to find information’ category, here. ***Go to this list to see if you have a non-profit VOLAG subcontractor near you.
Is your denomination one of 37 that will be holding demonstrations and lobbying Congress?
It is called the #GreaterAs1campaign. (Just my personal opinion, but I sure wouldn’t run my whole campaign around a hashtag, see what happened at #ThisIsARefugee!) Get your T-shirt and help pay some big salaries at Church World Service as Donald Trump turns off their flow of your money (your tax dollars!). https://greateras1.org/ACT/
Here is the news at WFYI (Indianapolis):
Religious groups around the country Friday announced a coordinated effort to fight immigration policies being pushed by the Trump administration. The campaign includes 37 Christian denominations representing 30 million Americans.
President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration was made manifest in January through an executive order blocking citizens from seven countries – said to protect Americans from foreign-born terrorists. A federal judge blocked the order, but a revised version is expected soon.
The order has been divisive among faith groups. But on Friday a number of Orthodox and mainline Protestant churches announced a grassroots effort to fight any version of the ban.
[….]
The campaign also hopes to raise $1 million over the next six months to help refugees. [They have salaries to pay!—ed]
It was announced through the National Council of Churches and Church World Service, a group that helps settle refugees. [Paid by the head by American taxpayers to resettle refugees!—ed]
You can go here and see what the campaign will do. CWS CEO Rev. John McCullough being arrested in Washington, DC protesting in SUPPORT of Obama’s executive AMNESTY. Photo and story here: http://njfon.org/2015/04/08/faith-groups-challenge-fifth-circuit-court-on-presidents-immigration-actions/
And, I had a hard time finding a link to the 37 denominations they are bragging about, but it must be their usual list of congregations that are affiliated with Church World Service, see here (there are 37 listed).
Is one of these your church? If so, and you disagree with the anti-Trump campaign, speak up!
So those churches above will be fundraising, demonstrating and lobbying Congress against President Trump’s immigration policy.
Now, let’s look at Church World Service’s financials….
According to Charity Review, Church World Service has 241 paid staff. Head honcho, the Rev John McCullough, CWS’s CEO, makes a shamefully high annual salary of $316,714!
Here is a breakdown of their income. Besides the $50 million from the US Treasury in one year, that service fee is likely your money too!
And holy moly!
Just for the heck of it, I checked USA Spending.govto see how much of your money this supposed ‘religious’ charity got from you since 2008.
I am shocked! In the bidding-for-bodies racket, they have got the Lutherans beat!
They are approaching a half a billion dollars in federal money between 2008 and 2016!
Here are just 5 transactions of 351! And, aren’t you wondering why the Dept. of Homeland Security is giving them payola!
There should be a law! Any non-profit sucking this kind of money out of the US Treasury should be prohibited from running anti-Trump (or anti-any President) campaigns!
Where is Congress? Go here to see if politically Leftwing Church World Service operates a refugee office in your city. And, click here, for all of our previous posts on CWS.
